21st Century Communication Trends

There are five key organizational trends.




Globalization: has occurred due to decline of barriers among nations and role of technological change. It has reduced cost and improved quality of international transportation and communication, reduced search for unsaturated markets and exploit regional cost and expertise differences has led to increasing global sales, manufacturing, research, management. It has also led to a global labor market. It has expanded globally where direct exports are moved to sales offices in different countries and manufactures to all functions are spread across the globe.


Diversity: This occurs due to changing demographics, and globalization of the labor market. It has lead to workforce getting more heterogeneous sexually, racially, culturally, and individually, etc.; it is a source of both innovation and conflict/communication problems; it is also a need to cope with different styles of interaction, dress, presentation, physical appearance.

Well having worked on the topic diversity , I would like to add that the main factors influencing modern day economy are Cultures, Ethnic groups, Physical features, race - human variability ,Socio-economic backgrounds ,Religious beliefs ,Neurology. There is also a huge impact of culture in workplace. All these factors must be unified by doing an Assessment, followed by developing some strategy which should further be implemented. Everybody must foster an attitude of openness. They must encourage and Utilize diversity training and lastly promote diversity in leadership positions.

The following steps needs to be taken for adapting to diversity
Diversity encourages acceptance and respect. It must adapt integration of races, religions, cultures and organizations for worldwide synthesis. Development of interpersonal skills among employees




Flexibility: means that the organization is flexible regarding processes, people, rules, procedures, autonomy etc. Flexibility is needed to stay competitive, to adapt to new situations, and to compete with other organizations. It creates a healthier working environment.




Flat organizations: enable discussions, decision making of employees and increasing motivation among employees. I think a flat organization can be more flexible and more competitive than an organization with more hierarchical levels, as communication is necessary to adapt to new situations. It has lesser levels of hierarchy which leads for lesser confusion among the employees.




Network: An organization network can be defined as a group of people that have some kind of commercial relationship. According to experts, business networking functions best when individuals offer to help others to find connections, rather than "cold-calling" on prospects them. Business networking can take place outside of traditional business environments.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity

http://www.business-marketing.com/store/culturaldiversityartcile.html

http://www.yan-koloba.com/articles.html

The above mentioned articles talk about the importance of communication trends and the need for diversity in a workplace.